Xiaomi's AirDots Pile Pressure on Apple

The Chinese company has unveiled low cost wireless earbuds with a four hour battery life.

(CCM) — Xiaomi has thrown down the gauntlet to Apple by announcing AirDots, the Chinese company's new wireless earbuds.

Apple has led the way in the wireless earbud market with its $160 AirPods, which were first released in December 2016. But Xiaomi hopes to stake a claim to a substantial part of this market by pricing its similarly named AirDots at an extremely aggressive $30 or even less.

Despite costing less than one fifth of the price of Apple's AirPods, the AirDots appear to be well specced. They connect to handsets using the latest Bluetooth 5.0 technology, meaning they use less power and should have a more stable connection than devices that use older Bluetooth technology, according to a Next Web report.

The buds themselves have touch controls on their sides enabling users to adjust the volume, pause and resume playback, and take phone calls, and they come with an Apple-style charging case.There are some differences to AirPods, however. Most notably, AirDots come with silicon tips which may offer a more comfortable fit as well as better sound isolation.

The AirDots are currently available for pre-order in China only, and the company has not announced when they will be made available in the U.S. or European markets.